Monday, January 14, 2008

FO: Sunshine Cardigan

I'm a big cardigan wearer - party because I enjoy conforming to the academic cliché, but also because they are so convenient for layering warmth and letting your Summer/ Autumn wardrobe extend into colder months. The ultimate transition garment.

A few months ago I started to have a hankering for a yellow, dk-weight cardigan. I had an idea for a perfect garment in my head, but it was very vague and, probably because my standards were so high, I kept changing my mind. I cast on for a top-down raglan. Then bottom-up with set-in sleeves, then top-down again with a different design. I played with cable, lace, cable again, frogging and re-knitting just to frog again. Kirsty still hasn't stopped teasing me about how many times this thing was knitted.

Eventually, I settled on a simple top-down raglan with a basketweave boarder, a bit of side shaping, slipped stitch edges, an applied button band and double-sided sleeves you can wear up (for working) or down (to keep hands snuggly warm).

I had thought about submitting it to knitty, but the deadline day came and we didn't have internet access. Plus the light's been rubbish and I didn't feel there were good enough photos. Most of all I felt that, for all the pattern's finishing touches, the design was too simple. Basic patterns on knitty annoy me, I figured why add to it? I have the pattern written up though, so I'll post it here if anyone interested.

This last picture was taken at my very favourite part of London; the Science and Art staircase the Victoria and Albert Museum. Not many people realise, but the Science Museum used to be inside the V&A building, back when it was simply the 'South Kensington Museum' and basically the left-overs from the 1851 Great Exhibition. The science collections were booted out to the west side of the stree around the turn of the century; the main exteriour of the V&A built around the old duel-use building. So although the outside of the building is overtly arts and crafts, you'll find a more mixed set of iconography in the interiour. The art and science sections were connected (and demarcated from one another) with a gorgeous ceramic staircase covered in the letters 'S' and 'A'. The V&A, conscious that their own building is one of the prize pieces of their collection, maintain this staircase, but I think most visitors today just walk through it, perhaps thinking its particularly pretty, maybe wondering why Galileo's name is worked into the design.

I love it! The cuffs in particular are fabulous - I love how you can wear them rolled up or down. Lovely work. And hey, I love that part of the V&A too! Last time I was in London I spent a couple of hours just wandering around in there - the building itself is just gorgeous.

Hi - I'm here via Barefoot Rooster. Lovely cardigan - simply elegant! The cuffs completely make it for me. I understand your concern about publishing a "simple" pattern & have been having discussions about this with a dyer I am doing a little design work for - as she rightly pointed out, many very popular patterns are those that we describe as simple, classic, elegant, uncluttered... I think your cardigan is worth publishing, self or otherwise - congrats on a lovely design!

Oh dear. It's just been added to my list of things to make, which, at last rough calculation, stretches about 5 years into the future.... But I think I'll bump this one up to the top of the list. Thank you for sharing the pattern!